President Trump signed an executive order yesterday meant to spur the development and regulation of artificial intelligence (A.I.), technology that many experts believe will define the future of everything from consumer products to health care to warfare, the New York Times reported. A.I. experts across industry, academia and government have long called on the Trump administration to make the development of artificial intelligence a major priority. Last spring, worried that the U.S. was not keeping pace with China and other countries, Jim Mattis, then the defense secretary, sent a memo to the White House imploring the president to create a national strategy on A.I. Now, Trump has taken that step, though this “American A.I. Initiative” might not be as bold as some had hoped. The executive order aimed to better educate workers in the field, improve access to the cloud computing services and data needed to build A.I. systems, and promote cooperation with foreign powers. But the order did not set aside funds for A.I. research and development, and the administration provided few details on how it planned put its new policies into effect.
